The Kru, Krao, Kroo, or Krou are a West African ethnic group who are indigenous to western Ivory Coast and eastern Liberia.

[6] To ensure their status as “freemen,” they initiated the practice of tattooing their foreheads and the bridge of their nose with indigo dye to distinguish them from slave labor.

Traditions recorded in the mid nineteenth century by James Connelly relate that the Kru communities that lived along the shore of what is today southern Liberia and the reputed core settlement of the Kru came down to the coast from the interior "some three generations back — say one hundred to one hundred fifty years..." from an original place he called Claho.

[13][14] However, these accounts are often biased because of Europeans' lack of understanding the Kru language; for example, the term "Bar" or "bah" would signify a river mouth, rather than the proper name of a town.

The towns listed by European and American authors are often Anglicized; Settra Kru's name in the Klao language is actually Welteh.

From the late eighteenth century onward, Kru men (from whence the term Krumen derives) began working on European ships.

In the process there developed Kru communities around all the major trading factories of the coast, from Sierra Leone around to the mouth of the Congo River.

[17] They were active in the Royal Navy from 1820 to as late as 1924; for example, HMS Thistle landed a camp party with 12 Krumen in Elephant Bay in June of that year.

During the earlier part of the nineteenth century foreign observers often gave the Kru high praise for their honesty, courage, efficiency and willingness to do hard work.

[21] In the late nineteenth century, reports described the Kru as divided into small commonwealths, each with a hereditary chief whose duty was simply to represent the people in their dealings with strangers.

Their president, who held religious authority as well, guarded the national symbols, and his house was sanctuary for offenders until their guilt is proved.

In some areas of Liberia, these spiritual entities were contacted through a class of people called deya, who underwent long and specialized training and apprenticeship to take up their office.

Dr. George Toe Washington, former Armed Forces Chief of Staff of Liberia and ambassador to the United States, Canada, and Mexic, is of Kru and Grebo ancestry.